Half-Life: Alyx Causes Valve Index to Sell Out in the US and Canada

The killer app that VR needs?

The Valve Index VR headset is experiencing stock shortages in the US and Canada after the reveal of Half-Life: Alyx.

Valve revealed its new VR-only game Half-Life: Alyx on November 21. Now, just a week later, Valve’s own VR headset, the Index, is selling out in the US and Canada.

RoadtoVR reports that from November 27 most of the Index packages listed on the US and Canadian Steam store pages are displayed with “Back in Stock Soon” messages.

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That’s three packages in total: the headset, controllers, and Half-Life: Alyx package; headset and Half-Life: Alyx package; and the controllers and Half-Life: Alyx package.

The only Index package that is still available is the most expensive at $999 - which includes includes the headset, controllers, two base stations, and Half-Life: Alyx. However, the message displayed alongside it is that if you order now you can expect to receive it before December 25.

Before Half-Life: Alyx was announced, all of the Index packages were available for immediate shipping in the US and Canada. The fact that these packages are now almost all sold out is the first indication of how popular Half-Life: Alyx might be.

CD Projekt Red recently had to address whether Half-Life: Alyx could be a threat to Cyberpunk 2077’s sales in an earnings call as both games come out within a month of each other. “VR remains an extremely nichey niche of the market, like it’s very, very small,” CD Projekt’s senior vice president of business development Andrzej Nowakowski said.

“That niche is very, very, very - and I could add a few verys here - small. So from the market perspective, are we afraid? No, because it’s a very different niche.”

It seems CD Project doesn’t think there will be much overlap between Half-Life: Alyx and Cyberpunk 2077 as Valve’s game is for PC-based VR headsets only.